My Monday column begins like so:
This is what happens when one very delusional, very opportunistic grifter makes more money than he knows what to do with thanks to easily-tricked disciples who willingly endorse his madness. Yes, Glenn Beck is building an amusement park called -- what else? -- Independence Park.
But he's pitching it to be much more than a roadside tourist trap with a tilt-a-whirl, concessions and skeeball. Beck and his ridiculous imagineers want their herd of followers to believe it's a real city -- their own version of Ayn Rand's "Galt's Gulch," a place that's entirely divorced from the rules of American society, yet it ironically claims to be a facility for elevating the Beck version of American values and teaching it to suckers who pay the price of admission.
Realistically, it's a monument to the conservative entertainment complex. [continue reading]